In minority women, healthy diet reduces risk of type 2 diabetes

the ONA take:

While consuming a healthy diet is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes in women, it has the greatest benefit in women who are Asian, Hispanic or black, according to a recent study published in Diabetes Care.

Researchers led by Jinnie Rhee, MSc, of the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed patient data in women taken from the Nurses’ Health Study (I and II) -- 156,030 were non-Hispanic white, 2,026 Asian, 2,053 Hispanic, and 2,307 black. The women were followed for up to 28 years and were asked to fill out diet questionnaires every four years. They created a dietary diabetes risk reduction score that included components associated with type 2 diabetes risk, with a higher score indicating a healthier overall diet.

They found that there was a protective association between healthy overall diet and type 2 diabetes risk across all racial and ethnic groups. However, since minority women were initially at a higher risk of diabetes than white women, healthy diet was seen to prevent 8 cases for every 1,000 minority women compared to 5.3 for every 1,000 white women.

“As the incidence of type 2 diabetes continues to increase at an alarming rate worldwide, these findings can have global importance for what may be the largest public health threat of this century,” Dr. Rhee said.

It has the greatest benefit in women who are Asian, Hispanic or black.

Consuming a healthy diet was associated with reduced risk for type 2 diabetes among women in all racial and ethnic groups but conferred an even greater benefit for Asian, Hispanic, and black women, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital.